USC First Lady writes family cooking book

Wednesday

Nov 13, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Patricia Moore-Pastides' “Greek Revival from the Garden: Growing and Cooking for Life” is no ordinary cookbook; rather, it inspires the whole family to participate in the rewarding approach of a garden to table experience with food.

By SUSAN BECKHAM ZURENDAFor the Herald-Journal

Patricia Moore-Pastides' “Greek Revival from the Garden: Growing and Cooking for Life” is no ordinary cookbook; rather, it inspires the whole family to participate in the rewarding approach of a garden to table experience with food.In addition to presenting 50 delicious recipes accompanied by tempting photographs, the book's garden-to-table progression encourages family members to partake together in an overall healthy lifestyle based on the Mediterranean way of eating and living.Designed for the young and beginning gardener and cook (though equally appealing to those more experienced) “Greek Revival from the Garden” begins with a section titled “Why Food Choice Matters,” advances to simple instructions on organic vegetable gardening, and ends with recipes that include the gardener's bounty and more.Recently, Moore-Pastides spoke at a luncheon to high school students of the Viking Academy in Spartanburg District 7 about the benefits of organic gardening, healthy eating, and her personal journey of being a first-generation college graduate in her family (as many of the students in the Academy will be).On Nov. 20 at noon, Moore-Pastides will again be in Spartanburg at a ticketed luncheon at the Spartanburg Country Club where she will discuss her new book as well as feature ideas and recipes for Thanksgiving meals. The cost of a ticket is $45, and tickets are available through the Hub City Bookshop or online through hubcity.org/bookshop.“Greek Revival from the Garden: Growing and Cooking for Life” encourages health and happiness for all ages and especially beginning early in life because Moore-Pastides, who is first lady of the University of South Carolina, says she is concerned with the challenge of “getting more people eating the right way at a younger age so that people won't face as many health problems later in life.”In deciding on her recipes, Moore-Pastides says she consulted many young people to determine what is “delectable to them.” Katie's Classic Eggplant Parmesan, for example, is a favorite of Katie Stagliano, who started growing vegetables in third grade and now as a teenager heads her own nonprofit organization called Katie's Krops.“This diet is by no means completely vegetarian,” says Moore-Pastides, “but the ratio of plant-based to animal-based foods is weighed heavily toward plant-based. “This way of eating includes lots of beans, whole grains, and seafood. “Rather than the meat being a large steak hanging off the plate, meat might be part of a stew instead,” she adds.The Mediterranean diet includes very few processed foods, and the main source of fat is olive oil, not bacon or butter. “Instead of frying, you roast vegetables in olive oil in the oven,” Moore-Pastides says. Also, lemon and herbs are used to flavor foods more than salt.The recipes in the book are organized according to specific vegetables, herbs and spices growing in a typical garden. The dishes cover the gamut for both young and experienced cooks and offer creative ideas for preparing not only vegetables, but desserts and seafood.

“Greek Revival from the Garden” also entices readers to grow their own organic vegetables with instructions for the novice gardener on how to set up and maintain a garden of diverse herbs and vegetables. This section also includes creative planting ideas such as the “salad bowl” container garden and the “pizza garden.” In conjunction with delicious, healthy meals Moore-Pastides' book champions the benefits of gardening: “fresh air, sunshine, self-esteem, and a healthy food supply devoid of pesticides and additives.”Additionally, the approach in “Greek Revival from the Garden” encourages well-being through the way people consume foods. Moore-Pastides believes when someone makes a good meal from scratch and enjoys it with family and friends instead of eating out of a bag from a fast-food drive through line, total satisfaction takes place.Moore-Pastides received a masters degree in public health from Yale University, and became particularly interested in healthy eating and living around 1984 when she was coordinator of Healthline for The Sisters of Providence Hospitals, a system of Catholic hospitals. Her job was implementing wellness programs — focusing on cessation of smoking, weight loss, nutrition and the need for exercise — for employees at businesses.Though Irish in ancestry, Pastides became a convert to the Mediterranean lifestyle in the late 1980s when she was in Greece for 10 months on a sabbatical with her husband, University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides. She took Greek cooking classes and studied the Mediterranean way of life where she says men were living longer and more productively in contrast to American men who were dying a younger ages.“What they eat is not what Americans typically eat in Greek restaurants in our country,” she says. “Instead of grape leaves stuffed with chopped meat and white rice as one would likely find in America, for example, the authentic Greek version is much healthier and tastes wonderful.” Pastides describes stuffed grapes leaves using bulgur (a wheat product), along with onions cooked in olive oil, pine nuts, raisins, and cumin for spice.“Not only does Mediterranean food taste good, this diet positively affects many factors that can lead to myriad health problems,” says Moore-Pastides. “It helps lower bad cholesterol, blood pressure, and staves off diabetes and inflammation. It reduces the likelihood of some cancers, especially breast, colon and prostate. It even diminishes the incidence of arthritis, childhood allergies, macular degeneration, and birth defects.” Her book targets young people because she says the sooner good health starts, the longer and healthier life becomes.Moore-Pastides practices what she preaches. She cultivates an organic garden at the President's house, and she cooked each recipe in the book at the President's home and photographed the results for the book. And among her many duties planning events as first lady of the University of South Carolina, Moore-Pastides finds time to teach Mediterranean cooking classes on campus for USC students and to both adults and children through Columbia's Cooking!, a community branch of the university's Cancer Prevention and Control Program.